Thursday, November 28, 2013

The Day of the Daleks

23/11/13
“Day of the Daleks”

I'd
heard good things about this story, especially its short running
length! Unfortunately, I've got to relegate it to the
ever-increasing pile of somewhat tedious Pertwee stories. Not his
fault, really. There's still a lot of affection for Pertwee era
stories, and I wonder if that will change as those who watched him in
original broadcast age?

This
is an unfortunate story for Jo, who really gets to do nothing of
value, and rather a depressing story for the Doctor, who gets to be a
glutton and a violent killer. It's also not a particularly
distinguished story for the Brigadier or UNIT in general. It casts
Yates in a particularly bad light as he uses his rank to banish
Benton, who is quite sweetly flirting with Jo Grant and also just
wants to have a little wine and cheese. The Doctor sitting around in
a country house pigging out (and drinking wine!!) is quite
uncharacteristic behavior (Gorgonzola?!).

Jo
being frightened by ghosts is demeaning, especially since this
follows “The Daemons” where the Doctor annoyingly keeps going on
about “science, not sorcery” in a patronizing fashion and then
teases everyone with talk of ghosts. Jo seems ill-informed (she
should know who Styles is and shouldn't need the Brigadier to
exposition-ize for her). She is disappointingly trusting of the
Controller in the future, deciding to bide her time by eating grapes.
Her wardrobe malfunctions are hardly her fault, but then again, why
did she leave her house dressed like that?

Sir
Reginald Styles, the UN diplomat and peacekeeper, is not allowed to
become interesting, so his stand-offish behavior becomes a mere plot
contrivance and another one in the annoying list of Pertwee
obstructions. His behavior is believable enough in context, but we
never get to know him. I like the
Ogrons, and they are introduced here, though the need for the Daleks
to use them at all is a bit mystifying.

The
central idea is an interesting one (predictably Jo believes that the
guerrillas are horrible people). The beginning in the Doctor's lab
feels a bit “Inferno,” though this time it's Jo and not Liz, but
the time distortion Jo experiences is never really explained. The
guerillas themselves have little to distinguish them from their
counterpart Thals in “Genesis of the Daleks” some time later, but
the fact that a woman is given a prominent role feels like some
progress. The on location filming is a nice touch though extremely
obvious in the switch between film and video. The updated special
effects seem to have been integrated seamlessly.

As
the return of the Daleks not seen for many years in Doctor
Who,
it's at least nice that this adventure comes in a merciful four
parts (and I prefer it to “Planet of the Daleks”). “Hide”
appears to have been modeled directly on this story and so, to a
lesser extent, does The
Doll of Death.